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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTSOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
xCITILINE HOLDINGS, INC., Individually : Civil Action No. 1:08-cv-03612-RWSand On Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated,: (Consolidated)
:Plaintiff, : CLASS ACTION
:vs. :
:ISTAR FINANCIAL INC., et al., :
:Defendants.
: x
CONSOLIDATED AMENDED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINTFOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS
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Plaintiffs Plumbers Union Local No. 12 Pension Fund and Citiline Holdings, Inc. (“Lead
Plaintiffs” or “Plaintiffs”) make the following allegations, except as to allegations specifically
pertaining to Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs’ counsel, based upon the investigation undertaken by Plaintiffs’
counsel, which investigation included analysis of publicly available news articles and reports, public
filings, securities analysts’ reports and advisories about iStar Financial Inc. (“iStar” or the
“Company”), interviews of former iStar employees, interviews of people knowledgeable about
iStar’s business and investments, press releases and other public statements issued by the Company,
and media reports about the Company, and Plaintiffs believe that substantial additional evidentiary
support will exist for the allegations set forth herein after a reasonable opportunity for discovery.
NATURE OF THE ACTION
1. This is a securities class action on behalf of a class consisting of all persons, other
than Defendants, who purchased the common stock of iStar between December 6, 2007 and March
6, 2008 (the “Class Period”), against iStar, certain of its officers and directors and the Underwriter
Defendants, as defined below, for violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) and
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
2. The claims asserted herein arise under and pursuant to Sections 11, 12(a)(2) and 15 of
the Securities Act [15 U.S.C. §§77k, 77l(a)(2) and 77o] and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the
Exchange Act [15 U.S.C. §§78j(b) and 78t(a)] and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder [17 C.F.R.
§240.10b-5].
3. This Court has jurisdiction of this action pursuant to Section 22 of the Securities Act
[15 U.S.C. §77v], Section 27 of the Exchange Act and 28 U.S.C. §1331.
4. Venue is properly laid in this District pursuant to Section 22 of the Securities Act,
Section 27 of the Exchange Act and 28 U.S.C. §1391(b) and (c). iStar maintains its executive
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offices in this District and the acts and conduct complained of herein occurred in substantial part in
this District.
5. In connection with the acts and conduct alleged in this Complaint, Defendants,
directly or indirectly, used the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, including the
mails and telephonic communications and the facilities of the New York Stock Exchange (the
“NYSE”), a national securities exchange.
PARTIES
6. Lead Plaintiffs purchased iStar common stock, as set forth in their certifications
previously filed in this case and incorporated herein by reference, during the Class Period, and were
damaged thereby.
7. Defendant iStar is a finance company whose lending business primarily consists of
making senior and mezzanine loans on commercial real estate. The Company’s executive offices are
located at 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 39th Floor, New York, NY 10036.
8. Defendant Jay Sugarman (“Sugarman”) was, at all relevant times, iStar’s Chairman of
the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Investment Committee member. Defendant
Sugarman signed the Registration Statement issued in connection with the Secondary Offering.
9. Defendant Nicholas A. Radesca (“Radesca”) was, at all relevant times, iStar’s Chief
Accounting Officer (“CAO”). On the last day of the Class Period, iStar announced that Defendant
Radesca resigned from his position as CAO, effective February 29, 2008. Defendant Radesca signed
the Registration Statement.
10. Defendant Catherine D. Rice (“Rice”) was, at all relevant times, iStar’s Chief
Financial Officer (“CFO”). In addition to serving as iStar’s CFO, Defendant Rice assumed
Defendant Radesca’s duties upon his resignation. Defendant Rice signed the Registration Statement.
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11. Defendant Timothy J. O’Connor (“O’Conner”) was, at all relevant times, iStar’s
Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) and Executive Vice President. As COO, Defendant O’Conner was
responsible for developing and managing the Company’s risk management and due diligence
operations, which included evaluating and approving new investments and coordinating information
systems.
12. Defendants Sugarman, Rice, Radesca and O’Conner are referred to herein as the
“Individual Defendants.”
13. Defendants Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (“Citigroup”), J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.,
(“Morgan”), Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (“Wachovia”), Banc of America Securities LLC, (“B
of A”), Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (“Deutsche Bank”) and UBS Securities LLC (“UBS”) are
investment banks that served as underwriters for the Secondary Offering. Defendants Citigroup,
Morgan, Wachovia, B of A, Deutsche Bank and UBS are collectively referred to herein as the
“Underwriter Defendants.”
CLASS ACTION ALLEGATIONS
14. Plaintiffs bring this action as a class action pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure 23(a) and 23(b)(3) on behalf of themselves and all persons who purchased the common
stock during the Class Period. Excluded from the Class are Defendants, members of Defendants’
immediate families, any person, firm, trust, corporation, officer, director or other individual or entity
in which any Defendant has a controlling interest or which is related to or affiliated with any of
Defendants, and the legal representatives, agents, affiliates, heirs, successors-in-interest or assigns of
any such excluded party.
15. The members of the Class are so numerous that joinder of all members is
impracticable. iStar sold 8 million common shares in the Secondary Offering and approximately 134
million of its common shares were outstanding during the Class Period. The precise number of
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Class members is unknown to Plaintiffs at this time but is believed to be in the tens of thousands. In
addition, the names and addresses of the Class members can be ascertained from the books and
records of iStar or its transfer agent or the underwriters to the Secondary Offering. Notice can be
provided to such record owners by a combination of published notice and first-class mail, using
techniques and a form of notice similar to those customarily used in class actions arising under the
federal securities laws.
16. Plaintiffs will fairly and adequately represent and protect the interests of the members
of the Class. Plaintiffs have retained competent counsel experienced in class action litigation under
the federal securities laws to further ensure such protection and intend to prosecute this action
vigorously.
17. Plaintiffs’ claims are typical of the claims of the other members of the Class because
Plaintiffs and all the Class members’ damages arise from and were caused by the same false and
misleading representations and omissions made by or chargeable to Defendants. Plaintiffs do not
have any interests antagonistic to, or in conflict with, the Class.
18. A class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient
adjudication of this controversy. Since the damages suffered by individual Class members may be
relatively small, the expense and burden of individual litigation make it virtually impossible for the
Class members to seek redress for the wrongful conduct alleged. Plaintiffs know of no difficulty that
will be encountered in the management of this litigation that would preclude its maintenance as a
class action.
19. Common questions of law and fact exist as to all members of the Class and
predominate over any questions affecting solely individual members of the Class. Among the
questions of law and fact common to the Class are:
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(a) whether the federal securities laws were violated by Defendants’ acts as
alleged herein;
(b) whether the Registration Statement issued by Defendants to the investing
public in connection with the Secondary Offering omitted and/or misrepresented material facts about
iStar and its business;
(c) whether Defendants’ statements issued during the Class Period were
materially false and misleading; and
(d) the extent of injuries sustained by members of the Class and the appropriate
measure of damages.
SUBSTANTIVE ALLEGATIONS
The Company and Its Business
20. Defendant iStar describes itself as a leading publicly-traded finance company focused
on the commercial real estate industry. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment
trust (“REIT”), purports to provide custom-tailored financing to high-end private and corporate
owners of real estate, including senior and mezzanine real estate debt, senior and mezzanine
corporate capital, corporate net lease financing and equity. Generally, senior debt or equity
investments possess a first priority position in the underlying assets and are less risky than
mezzanine debt or equity investments whose interest in the underlying assets are subordinated to the
senior debt or equity investor. As of December 31, 2007, first mortgage/senior loans and
mezzanine/subordinated debt respectively represented 85% and 11% of iStar’s loan portfolio.
21. iStar’s two primary lines of business are lending and corporate tenant leasing. The
lending business consists primarily of senior and mezzanine real estate loans that typically range in
size from $20 million to $150 million with maturities generally ranging from three to ten years. The
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Company’s corporate tenant leasing business provides capital to corporations and others who control
facilities leased primarily to single customers.
22. By early 2007, conditions in the U.S. mortgage market had begun to deteriorate
significantly due to several factors. The Federal Reserve began raising interest rates, which climbed
steadily from 4% in mid 2004 to 8.25% in September 2007. As key short-term and the prime rates
rose, other interest rates rose as well, including those for most mortgage loans. This rise in interest
rates dampened the demand for mortgage loans as the increase in the cost of financing reduced the
expected rate of return on real property ownership. Also, and not coincident with the rise in interest
rates, real property appreciation began to slow in 2006, and the overall economy began to cool. This
combination of factors drove down the value of mortgage loans that lenders, such as iStar, carried on
their books and increased the risk associated with the U.S. mortgage lending.
23. This increase risk represented a distinct challenge to lenders structured as REITs, like
iStar. Since REITs are required to return much of their cash to shareholders pursuant to federal tax
laws, iStar and other REIT lenders must have ready access to capital in order to possess the liquidity
necessary to issue mortgage loans.
24. On July 2, 2007, iStar acquired the $6.27 billion commercial real estate loan portfolio
and commercial real estate lending business from Fremont Investment & Loan (“Fremont”), a
subsidiary of Fremont General Corporation, pursuant to a definitive asset purchase agreement dated
May 21, 2007.
25. As a result of the acquisition, iStar acquired approximately 285 commercial first
mortgage loans from Fremont. Approximately 60% of the value of the loans, as of March 31, 2007,
were collateralized by apartment and other types of residential properties located throughout the
United States. The balance of the loans were collateralized by a variety of property types.
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26. The aggregate principal amount of the loans that the Company acquired was
approximately $6.5 billion as of March 31, 2007, and approximately 130 employees of Fremont
joined the Company upon the closing of the transaction.
27. As consideration for the acquisition, iStar paid Fremont approximately $1.9 billion in
cash and transferred to Fremont a senior A-participation interest in the acquired portfolio of loan
assets representing an approximately 70% interest in the portfolio. iStar retained a 30% B-
participation interest in the acquired portfolio of loan assets with an approximate $2.1 billion
principal amount.
28. To finance the Fremont acquisition, iStar obtained a $2 billion bridge facility, which
was scheduled to mature in June 2008. In addition, iStar agreed to fund up to approximately $4.4
billion of unfunded loan commitments associated with the acquired portfolio.
The Investor Conference
29. On December 6, 2007, iStar held its 2007 Investors Day Conference at the New York
Public Library (the “Investor Conference”). At the Investor Conference, iStar and its management
made presentations to the investment community concerning the Company’s balance sheet and
investments, among other things.
30. During the Investor Conference, Defendants portrayed iStar as “conservative” and
told investors, among other things, that “the strength of our [iStar’s] balance sheet has always been
one of the strong holds of the iStar story.” Defendants represented that iStar regularly reviewed its
loan portfolio with a “bias towards relative conservatism with respect to values” and that the
Company has “135 people that all they do from the time they get up to the time they leave work is to
watch our portfolio and our assets.”
31. During the Investor Conference, Defendants also spoke about the Company’s non-
performing loan (“NPL”) portfolio and high risk loans. Defendants told investors that they “flag
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internally” NPLs and that they “are talking about [them] every week.” Defendants also represented
that they maintained adequate reserves for loan losses and that their loan loss reserving practices
were conservative.
Defendants Minimize iStar’s Risksas Compared to Other Mortgage Lenders
32. During the Investor Conference, Defendants distinguished the business risks facing
iStar from those facing other mortgage lenders by positively describing iStar’s business model so
that the marketplace would continue to supply it with the necessary liquidity during the height of the
U.S. sub-prime mortgage and financial crisis. For example, during the Investor Conference,
Defendant Sugarman highlighted iStar’s “balance sheet strength,” stating, in pertinent part:
I guess it’s fair to say it’s been a very interesting year to date, and one we like to sumup as, “Be careful what you wish for.” As many of you have heard me say manytimes before, we’ve been very surprised and disappointed with the relative ease atwhich new finance companies in our space have been able to access extraordinarylevels of leverage based on we thought business plans that were far inferior to theiStar enterprise.
As you’ll hear later today, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to craft our businessstrategies to stay away from that capital, and I think what we hope was a correctionin the credit and finance markets would really demonstrate the flexibility, thebalance sheet strength and the opportunities embedded in having an unsecured,investment-grade model.
Now, this slide [ infra], which you’re going to see a couple of times today, highlightsthe conservative level of leverage that we see in almost all corporate ratings of realestate finance companies, and we like to compare that with the very aggressive levelsof leverage we have seen in the structured credit market over the past couple years.And as we’ve pointed out in many presentations, what’s really striking is the relativevalue, represented by bonds issued out of this corporate family, compared to thisslice of the structured credit market, despite similar ratings, BBB, BAA2, in our case.
And I want to do some quick comparisons for you. We’re going to come back to thisslide a couple of times, but it’s important to start with the strength of thisbusiness model. So I guess I picked iStar Financial. Obviously, we have aviewpoint on our own credit, but I think you’ll see this comparison works in a lot ofother companies’ case, as well.
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When you’re buying bonds in the iStar enterprise, you’re buying a $15 billionunencumbered asset pool across multiple assets, originated in multiple years, inmultiple parts of the commercial real estate world. This is a very strong sponsoredCDO. It’s one of probably the best in the business. It was issued in 2006. It hasabout $1 billion of assets, so a fraction of the size.
Almost all of the assets are originated at the same time, and, candidly, the top 10assets in that pool, it’s a 30-asset pool, represent 52% of the balance of that entire $1billion capital stack. So we’ve got a very concentrated portfolio.
This portfolio, again, much more diversified, top 10 assets about 12%. That’s over$3 billion of tangible equity sitting underneath, protecting those bondholders. Overhere, you’ve got a little over $100 million.
And, lastly, this enterprise runs with significantly lower leverage than the investmentgrade leverage over here. And I point this out simply to start the meeting bysaying the strength of our balance sheet has always been one of the strongholdsof the iStar story.
Extraordinary Leverage Available in Structured Market ;:STAR F NCIAL
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So given that environment, what I thought I would do to kick off the meeting isreally highlight the good news, and then perhaps some of the things that are morechallenging. And we’ve put together a slide here where we can go through someof the things that I think really differentiate the iStar model [ infra].
One, obviously, we, as you saw on that last chart, believe we are relative lowleverage with a very significant equity capital base. And this is really thefoundation of the balance sheet strength of our enterprise. Our loans are mostlysenior mortgages. They’re collateralized by high-quality assets. They’re assetsthat we can underwrite, understand and asset manage. These are highlytangible businesses, highly tangible pieces of assets that we can underwrite.And, probably more importantly, there are loan bases in those assets and thathigh-quality capital represents a significant discount to replacement cost. Andfor us, replacement cost is the strongest long-term indicator of value in the real estatesector.
The Good News f , STAR I iN-,VJCW_
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$3.6 billion of adjusted equity (1)
(D Loans are mostly senior mortgages
Q Loan basis represents a significant discount to replacement cost
v Have unrealized gains throughout the portfolio
Asset base is almost entirely unencumbered— $15 billion unencumbered assets across loan, CTL, AutoStar, iStar Europe, Corporate
Fixed Income and TimberStar businesses
Made many short-term, low LTC loans over the past two years— Specific goal of receiving capital back right when market might be correcting— $5.0 billion expected to come back in 2008
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1. Let me go to the not-so-good news, and these are some of the challenges we seein today’s environment. First of all, as I think all of you are acutely aware, theunsecured debt and equity markets are just not that hospitable to us right now.What’s interesting to me is since I know, and I hope many of you know our
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debt is extremely well protected, and I really haven’t met anybody who doesn’tbelieve that. We believe the dislocation in the debt markets is a technical factorthat will correct over time. Part of our job is to spread the message of howsafe our balance sheet really is.
* * *
And, lastly, I’m going to spend a minute on this, and somewhat concerning to me isthat the overall market is not really differentiating between some of the higher-quality stories out there and frankly some of the lower-quality stories. And Iguess I’d put it under the heading of comparing commercial real estate loans toresidential structured product is just not a very good comparison. It’s a verypoor analogy and one that’s not supported by the facts at all, but it’s something thatwe’re going to have to be fairly diligent in showing people why we’re not inthose sectors. And so what I’d like to do for you today is really talk a little bit aboutwhat we think are the four sectors in the real estate market and really differentiatethem.
Now, the newspapers are never going to quite grasp the difference between theresidential and the commercial markets, as well as the whole loan and structuredproduct markets. But I like to think of the real estate umbrella as really these fourquadrants, a simple two-by-two matrix, commercial, residential, whole loans andstructured products.
Not Just One Kind of Real Estate C]5TARI FINANCIALReltln en Itleas°
Whole Loans Structured Products
Residential Home Loans RMBS
Commercial Mortgages CMBS
12
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And, as you know, we don’t do residential and we don’t do structured products.So iStar really is only in that lower left-hand corner. But I think it’sinformative to actually just spend a second comparing these different businessesand show you how different we think our business is compared to some of thoseothers that you’re going to read about quite a bit in the next year.
So let’s talk about residential and commercial. Residential whole loans, smallbalances, tends to be an actuarial business. Probably the biggest flaw we’ve seen inthat business over the years is it’s a very one-sided business. As a borrower in thehome loans sector, you get a free option. If rates fall or your credit improves, youcan immediately pay off that loan. If rates rise or your credit actually worsens, youhave a below-market loan for as long as 30 years. As a lender, that’s not a veryinteresting proposition.
What we like about the commercial sector is we can underwrite that asset veryheavily. Typically, they’re less commodity like. And properly structured, we get afair bet, or sometimes even a better-than-fair bet, where if things go well we canactually make excess returns and things go bad, we have a hammer to actually workwith that customer before the problem gets out of hand.
So just looking at the residential versus commercial, we’ve always felt a better modelwas the commercial mortgage model. We think you can build a differentiatedbusiness model in that sector.
* * *
What we try to focus on with people is inside the iStar envelope, with the $15 billionof assets, you don’t have any leverage. You own everything. You own from the firstdollar up here down to here. And we think it’s a fundamentally differentbusiness, it’s a different underwriting, and it’s so much more safe and so muchmore secure that these ratings are very misleading. And we think the structuredproduct issues are things that are almost totally separate and apart. Now, they mayhave an impact on our core markets, and that’s why we spend so much timeanalyzing those markets and presenting on those markets. [Emphasis added.]
Defendants Highlight iStar’s LoanPortfolio Safety and Its Risk Management Processes
33. During the Investor Conference, Defendant O’Conner explained how management
understood, conservatively valued and closely monitored iStar’s loan portfolio, stating, in pertinent
part:
The first is our portfolio is very understandable. This is not complicated stuff.We’re going to talk about again, in detail, as to how the portfolio breaks down, but
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this is not black magic. This is simple, straightforward, easy to understand. It’sunderstandable, and we understand what we have, very important.
The second piece is the portfolio is underwritable. We can understand the risk inthe portfolio, we assessed it at the outset, we continued to monitor that riskthroughout the life of the investment so we can actually understand what’sgoing on in our portfolio on a real-time basis.
* * *
As we think about the portfolio, we really divide it into three components, threeareas, the first being the loan component of the portfolio, our core loan portfolio, ifyou will. Weighted average loan to value of 67%, a very important statistic for us.I’m going to talk about this throughout my presentation, but a very importantstatistic.
We view that 67% as creating a 33% cushion between our last dollar of exposure andthe value of the underlying collateral. It provides for a lot of room for things to gowrong and for us to still be okay. So that’s a statistic that we monitor closelyand we watch on an ongoing basis. I’m going to talk more about that as I continue.78% of our loans, floating rate, 22% fixed rate, 3.2 weighted average maturity. If, aswe step back and think about our loan portfolio, we take into account that wehave this embedded cushion by way of our loan to value, conservative positionin the capital structure, combined with our on-balance sheet reserves, and thediscount I just talked about from Fremont together provide a nice cushion forthat portfolio.
* * *
Today, condo and condo conversion loans make up a little over 16% of our overallportfolio. So it’s a significant part of our portfolio. It’s a part of our portfoliothat we understand, we think we understand very well. We’re going to talk aboutthat in much more detail later this afternoon. But as I think about it and try tocommunicate with you, there’s really two pieces of that.
* * *
I want to step back and talk for a minute about value, because we get asked questionsabout this a lot and it’s the right question. And for those of you that haven’t heardthe answer before, many of you probably have, I’m going to go through it. Thevalues that we carry from quarter to quarter are our internal values, notappraisals, not third-parties. It’s an internal iStar value where we sit downcollectively and say, where would we want to own this asset? So for every loanthat we underwrite, we’re going to step back and say, where would we own thisasset? And that’s the value that we attribute to the transaction, not whatsomeone else is telling us, and even moreover, not what the market is telling us.
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Because what we learned over the last 2.5 years, we started to track as loans wereeither refinanced out of our portfolio, or assets were sold by our borrowers. Andwhat we found was that our internal values were some 30% less than what themarket was attributing to those deals. So we think we have as part of the kindof DNA, the iStar DNA, a bias toward relative conservatism with respect tovalues and it’s all centered around replacement cost. [Emphasis added]
34. Defendant O’Conner then highlighted the Company’s portfolio risk management
processes, stating, in pertinent part:
Well, the first thing we do as a company is we devote a lot of people, a lot ofassets and a lot of resources to watching the portfolio. We have 135 people thatall they do from the time they get up to the time they leave work is watch ourportfolio and watch our assets. That’s all they do. You’re going to hear from someof them later today when we go through our panel discussions, but lots of resources,lots of depth, different talent sets and maybe most importantly, people that have livedthrough cycles, people that have been through from the early ‘90s through -- havelived through real estate cycles, so know what it’s like when it gets ugly. It’s prettyugly, but we know what it’s like when it gets ugly. We’ve got those people in house,and they’re working our assets.
* * *
Our entire risk management process is centered on information gathering andthen actually, more important, information sharing within the firm, because webelieve that if we can get the benefit of that information from those 135 bodies on theground, that we as a senior management team can make very informed decisionsas to strategies for changing things, getting ahead of problems, getting ahead ofissues before they really become problems. And that’s really how we manage theportfolio.
* * *
[W]e risk weight each and every asset on a scale of one to five. One is least risk, fiveis the most risk, with respect to principal loss. We go through each and every asset.We talk about what’s going on in the market, what’s going on with the borrower,what’s happening, and actually assign a numeric score to each and every investment.
Perhaps not surprisingly, when you step back from that process and look at it, weeffectively have a bell curve that distributes risk across the portfolio. If you look atthe assets in what we’ve identified here as the ones and twos, those are assets wedon’t talk about much, certainly don’t talk about much publicly. Those are the assetsthat we think are most secure in our portfolio, $2 billion. They’re performing great.
The assets in the middle, we don’t talk about those publicly, either, but I can tell youwe talk about those internally a lot, because those are the assets that we are most
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concerned are moving one way or the other and we’ve got to keep our eye on them,so we talk about those a lot.
And then the last piece, the fours and the fives, we obviously talk about them alot. We talk about them in our quarterly press releases. We talk about them in ourquarterly conference calls, and we identify them and talk about them in a reasonableamount of detail. 92% of our NPL and watch lists are in that four and five bucket.So, like I said, we talk to them a lot to the outside world.
We talk about them weekly, if not more, inside the Company. We have weeklymeetings, again, the same process that we’ve had -- my start, from day one since I’vebeen in, we sit and we say what’s going on and what can we do about it? And whatare we doing about it and how is the borrower reacting and how is the marketreacting and what do we do? And that’s not a decision that’s made by someonesitting in Atlanta or someone that’s sitting in San Francisco or someone that’s sittingin Dallas. That’s a decision that’s made jointly with the people that you see heresitting in this room. And what strategy we do and how we do it and how we counterand how we try to fix, isn’t left to somebody that’s out in the field. It’s done by thesenior people in this Company, and I think that’s a significant differentiator inour business. [Emphasis added.]
Defendants Positively Describe iStar’s Credit Quality
35. During the Investor Conference, Defendant O’Conner also made positive statements
about iStar’s credit quality and its NPL portfolio and high risk loans that were placed on the
Company’s “watch list,” stating, in pertinent part:
I want to talk a little bit about NPLs [Non-Performing Loans] and watch lists overthe next several pages. We do have 29 assets on NPL, so 642 investments in theportfolio. We currently have 29 assets on NPL. That’s less than 3% of the totalassets on our balance sheet.
* * *
Again, as most of you know, we do publish each quarter a watch list. So not only dowe define NPLs, which we define what they are and how they fit in that bucket, wealso have watch lists.
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i5tar Credit Quality — Loan Portfolio OsTAR I F I NANCIALiclwn nn ideas-
($ in millions)
# of Assets Book Value
Loan Portfolio 491 $10,693.4
Performing— Watch List 28 610.5
NPLs 29 428.7
Pert— Watch List6°Io NPLs
4%
Book Value
Note: As of September 30, 2007 30
Our watch list assets are performing assets. They’re receiving debt service, we aregetting paid as agreed, but we as a management team are concerned and want todo two things. One, we want to flag and show the market, hey, we’re concernedabout these. Two, we want to flag internally to people, hey, these are assets thatwe are talking about every week, if not more. And again, it’s in the context of thispie chart, 6% of the total assets are in fact on watch list in the loan portfolio.
We try to step back and put some of this in perspective. The white box on this page,again, is back to total portfolio, our performing watch list assets and what are ourNPLs. The far right column, managed column, that’s what we report. Centercolumn, that’s what’s on our balance sheet, that’s what’s on our books.
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 18 of 64
Star Credit Quality 0, STARS FpNANCtlALy
(S in millions)
# of Assets Book Value Managed Assets (1)
Total i5tar Portfolio 642 515,145.4 518,566.1Total Performing 613 14,716.7 17,717.4
Performing- Watch List 28 610.5 1,095.8NPL 29 428.7 848.7
i5tar Core Loan Portfolio 264 $8,605.3 $8,605.3Total Performing 257 8,396.6 8,396.6
Psrforming - Watch List 6 314.5 314.5NPL 7 208.6 208.6
Fremont Legacy Portfolio 233 $2,088.1 $5,508.8Totai Performing 211 1,868.1 4,868.8
Performing - Watch List 22 296.0 781.3NPL 22 2201 6417.1
Note: As of September 30, 2007Managed assets represent iStar's boots value plus Fremont's A-parlicipetion 31
The only reason why on the bottom here we’ve shown iStar core portfolio andFremont legacy portfolios is to point out a couple of things I touched on earlier. Oneis with respect to the Fremont portfolio, we have marked that portfolio. We markedit as of a couple of months ago and the 18 assets that we talked about earlier, guesswhat, those assets are up here. Okay, so we’re starting from a point where we saywe’ve marked the assets to bring them on the books. We knew they were NPLswhen we closed on this transaction. We marked them, they were NPLs, they’reNPLs now.
The other reason why I put this up here is if you look at the percentage of NPLs, andagain, this is watch lists and NPLs. We underwrote the Fremont transaction. Weknew we were going to have plus or minus X number of dollars watch list and Xnumber of dollars NPL. Not a surprise. This is not a surprise to us. We mentionedon our last earnings call, how is the portfolio performing? It’s performingpretty much as expected, pretty much as expected.
Now, the market’s gotten worse and there are some challenges we have to dealwith, but as far as where we underwrote and how the portfolio is performing,it’s performing pretty much as expected.
* * *
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 19 of 64
Okay, lots of press, lots of concern, certainly legitimate concern about certainmarkets and where are the assets and let’s fill into the detail. What we wanted to dois we highlighted five markets, plus or minus, here and to give a sense as to, okay,here’s our NPL list and how do they fall in these various markets that people are veryconcerned about, that we’re very concerned about.
i5tar Credit Quality rjSTAN: I INA'J CIA LRaerrn an r6r^s"
Performing — Watch List loans by select geographic locations
Book Value Managed Asset 14
Total [S rsMaml 44 rows Rswlsi TOW (Srr 600 9r, r" A*W&
Select Gworsphlc Locations
Fk-olz $29.5 0.2% $7$.4 OA%
Miami 0.0 CLO% 0.0 0.0%
wiVeei Coast AIbAM 0.0 0.096 0.0 0.0%
SO~ Colkfl%R 54.7 04% 153.3 0.0%
Las Vegas eA 0.0% 16.9 0.1%
Now York City 0.0 0.0% 0.0 0.0%
Phoenix 0.0 0.0°+6 0.0 0.0%
other 514.5 3A% 847.2 4.6%
Total PortkAl0 $610.5 4.0% 51.095.$ 5S%
Now. As oR Sspl nsw X 2007
+^ Uona d rHP"o A iSWs book valas Out Fror?W1 A-Por&ims ions _1;
So we start, and I would start at the bottom and say, Phoenix, we don’t haveanything, New York, we don’t have anything, Las Vegas, there’s not anything onnon-performers now. Southern California, one small transactions and then up thewest coast of Florida. The west coast of Florida, these transactions in this bucket areprimarily Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota. These are primarily the condo conversiontransactions, transactions that we knew about, transactions that are going to bechallenging to work through and take time, as Jay suggested, but transactions that weunderstood going into the deal.
The next page gives you just the same look on a slightly different basis, but it’s thesame cut with respect to watch list transactions.
And again, from our perspective, no surprises here, no surprises here, and Iwould hope that people would come and say, hey, it looks like some of thesemarkets, at least right now, that people are very concerned about, we don’t havea lot of exposure to. [Emphasis added.]
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 20 of 64
36. Defendant O’Conner also stated that the loss exposure on iStar’s loan portfolio was
limited, due to three factors: (1) the amount of borrower equity in the Company’s portfolio; 1 (2) the
percentage of senior loans in the Company’s portfolio; and (3) amount of the Company’s loan loss
reserves. Defendant O’Conner, stated, in pertinent part:
I would say we take comfort in three things. One, let’s look at how much borrowerequity there is in our portfolio. That’s kind of the first line of defense. That’s goingto determine what’s the probability that we’re going to get nicked, okay? And thenthe second line of defense is let’s look at our position. And we’re talking again aboutsenior, secured positions. Historically, senior, secured positions, the severity of lossof those positions is less. It has been, and will be. So borrower equity, firstmortgage position, and then if all else fails, guess what, you’ve got to drop back andyou’ve got to have something behind you, and what we have is our reserves. Wehave $125 million or $124-ish million of on balance sheet reserves.
Risk Management and Credit Quality - ' STAf<t' f IN-At-l(-tA
c) Adequate loan loss reserves and strong CTL credit enhancement
aabr
Tot i ;$ + .a ran. i. w*
!Awns:
On-Mlanyca sham raaarvm Si24-2 1.2%
RernaMing Fmffwtpurhwe Ckocunt 220A 2.1%
Tolal Wan lose coverage S34!30 3.3%
Q$'47
CTia:A::::m^,falad daptedaeon S411 A 10.7%
NonniNOW As 6V860rrla K Z W ys
1 Generally, borrowers’ equity refers to the amount of capital a borrower has at risk. Thegeneral view is that if the borrower has more equity at risk, the borrower is more apt to work througha financial difficulty than default on a mortgage loan.
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 21 of 64
We’ve grown that number [loan loss reserve]. Again, for those of you that havefollowed us, we’ve been growing that over years now, continue to grow that number.And we also have the benefit of this discount on the Fremont purchase thateffectively provides a cushion to our portfolio.
So if you step back and look at it, we have available to us as kind of a bucket toaddress these issues, $345 million. It’s a lot of money to address issues in theportfolio.
* * *
Okay, try to back up, summarize and have Jay come up here. Started by talkingabout Fremont, integration’s going well, not quite done yet, lots of progress. Wehave a bigger portfolio today than we had a year ago. We do.
We think that we’ve maintained some of the same story, or we have maintainedsome of the same story with respect to our position in the capital structure, firstmortgages, lots of cushion. In my mind, that’s never going away at iStar. It’s justpart of who we are, it’s part of how we operate. It’s how we do business.
The good news is, as much as the markets are noticeably worse today,materially worse than they were a year ago, our on-balance sheet reserve, ourcushion, is significantly greater than it was a year ago.
And then lastly, just the point again, lots of unencumbered assets. And then finally,we have what we believe is the right team in what is a very difficult, and we thinkwill be a difficult environment for the next 12 to 24 months. We’ve got the rightteam on the ground, process in place, to work our way through this. [Emphasisadded.]
Defendants Highlight iStar’s FinancialHighlights and Near Term Funding Requirements
37. During the Investor Conference, Defendant Rice highlighted iStar’s financial
performance and minimized the Company’s short term capital requirements, stating, in pertinent
part:
As you’ve heard on our third quarter earnings call, we’ve had solid year-to-datefinancial performance, with adjusted earnings up 11 % and revenues up 45% from thesame period in 2006. We announced 2008 adjusted earnings guidance of $4 to$4.20. And we continued to deliver strong returns at reasonable leverage levels.We announced a 5% increase to our quarterly dividend, which will be payablein the fourth quarter.
And due to the increase in income that we’re receiving from the Fremontportfolio, we’ll be declaring a special dividend in 2007 that should be in the
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 22 of 64
range of $0.15 to $0.30 a share. Typically, we consider dividend increases in thefirst quarter. And as you can see on the chart, we have increased our dividendssignificantly and consistently since we went public in 1998.
2007 Financial Highlights J'J'STAW FINANCIAL"two
Solid YTD performance- Adjusted earnings up 11% over the same period in 2006- Revenues up 45% over the some period in 2006
2008 Adjusted EPS guidance of $4.00 - $4.20
Delivering attractive ROES at lower leverage- 21% ROE,")- 3.3x leverage as of September 30, 7007 a
Quartedy dividend increased 5% to $0.87 per share; payable in 40'07- Special dividend expected in 40'07 in the range of $0.15 - $0.30 per share
ro Rohn. on Avow@* Cornran back Fquiy doll-ad m 0i4u*W emrwt p ad KmbW b oximm 7MrnhWftm end HPU nollam, arz%&M W. drndad by
rx I. nnvngn drf nwd at wt* data Gra dnd by 1h4 vam of bocrc+qutp. a m4r—t "alwd A "VoCUI CM%61 0 ka^ dit 'exn WX" en s"%"t
We spent a few minutes walking you through on the earnings call our sources anduses of capital through 2008, and we wanted to give you a quick update. This data isas of the end of November. And, as you can see on the left side, funds are available,our sources of capital. We have about $5 billion of regularly scheduled maturitiesfrom borrowers and amortization. We tried to be conservative in this estimate, giventhe fact that many of our borrowers, particularly in the next couple of months, willhave a difficult time refinancing our mortgages, given the dislocations in the realestate credit market.
We also have $1. 5 billion of capacity on our credit facilities for a total sources ofabout $6.5 billion. If you look to the right, our financing needs include about 4.4billion of unfunded commitments. This includes both the Fremont portfolio, as wellas the iStar portfolio. As we talked about on the call, a number of these projects areearly-stage projects that may or may not get funded over time.
In addition, we have about $2.1 billion of debt maturities in 2008, for a total of $6.5billion. So, as you can see, assuming no additional investment activity, we haveminimal capital raising requirements in 2008. [Emphasis added.]
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 23 of 64
Wrap-Up J)STAR FINANCIAL
Strong balance sheet, experienced management team, well positioned for currentmarket environment
2008 Adjusted EPS guidance of 54.00 - S410Womat capital raise requirements through 2008
— $15 billion of unencumbered assets availaaeSolid ROE 's aA low-er leverage
Well diversified portfolio- Lo^ln3;
• Conservative L1Vs provide cushion arc reduce loss probability• Senior secured positions reduce km severity• $345 million oombined reserves and Frernont discount provide further protection
— Losses:• Significant embedded gains throughout portfalioOther Rtatlorri• Owrill gain in value
iStar°s goal is to be the clear market leader in the commercial real estate finance sector- stronpesl ba4'ince short - Most o rmmi5ad porifotio - LmV slanding repulalkm for in%oty
Largestenlerprise value - Lowest leverage+ capital structure - Broadest knorAedga base
Most arable eaninp - Deepest in-house capalAties - Dbdplined kwastment pmoass
38. Following the Investor Conference, analysts trumpeted what Defendants had told
them about the strength of the Company’s balance sheet and loan portfolio. For example:
Bear Stearns – December 11, 2007
Investor Day Adds Clarity
;resentationInvestor Day. iStar held its second annual investor day last week. The
sought to distinguish iStar’s business model from other more highlylevered companies and structured finance vehicles. The company also sought tocalm concerns regarding the credit quality of the Fremont portfolio,demonstrate its strategic benefits, and address future capital needs.
Key Banc – December 7, 2007
We believe SFI has a strong balance sheet, with more than $15 billion ofunencumbered assets, favoring unsecured and secured debt over the collateralizeddebt obligation model used by many of its peers. The Company worked hard toachieve investment grade status, but must also comply with the agencies morestringent requirements, including lower leverage. The Company’s leverage ratio is
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 24 of 64
3.25x. SFI anticipates minimal capital raising in 2008 as its sources of cash closelymatch its needs next year.
SFI appears to be comfortable with the credit quality of its core portfolio. Mostof its loans are senior mortgages and the weighted average LTV of the portfolio is67%. The corporate tenant lease portfolio is viewed as a long-term stable cash flowbusiness, with properties 96% leased and 11.2 years average remaining lease term;31% are investment grade credits. SFI’s assets are well-diversified by location andcollateral type. The Company maintains a 135-person risk management team, whichis well-tenured with extensive resources. Non-performing loans total $428.7 million,or 3% of total assets. [Emphasis added.]
The Secondary Offering
39. On or about May 1, 2007, iStar filed the Registration Statement with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The Registration Statement was filed on a Form S-3 and
offered to sell, over time, common stock, preferred stock, depository shares debt securities and
warrants of the Company. Accordingly, the Secondary Offering was considered to be a “shelf
registration” that allowed the Company to register securities for sale while leaving them on the
“shelf” until it determined to conduct the offering, provided, however, that the Registration
Statement meet all the requirements proscribed under applicable securities regulations, including that
the information contained therein be current.
40. On or about October 9, 2007, iStar filed the Prospectus that formed part of the
Registration Statement associated with the Secondary Offering.
41. On or about December 13, 2007, iStar filed the Prospectus Supplement, which offered
six million common shares to the public. On or about December 14, 2007, the Registration
Statement, which incorporated the Prospectus and the Prospectus Supplement, became effective and
at least six million shares of iStar common stock were sold at $28.41 per share to the public. On or
about December 17, 2007, iStar amended the Prospectus Supplement to increase the number of
common shares offered to the public from six to eight million.
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 25 of 64
42. The proceeds iStar received from the Secondary Offering were in excess of $218
million. The Prospectus Supplement represented that the Company intended to use the proceeds
from the Secondary Offering to pay down an existing short-term financing facility it utilized to
acquire Fremont.
The Registration Statement was Materially Falseand Misleading and Failed to Disclose Facts Required to be Stated Therein
43. The Registration Statement, which incorporated the Prospectus and the Prospectus
Supplements, issued in connection with the Secondary Offering was negligently prepared and, as a
result, contained numerous untrue statements of material fact and omitted to disclose material
information which was required to be disclosed pursuant to the regulations governing its preparation.
Failure To Disclose “Material Changes”
44. As noted above, iStar filed the Registration Statement on Form S-3, which is a
stream-lined registration statement for certain well-capitalized, widely followed issuers. Such
issuers are permitted to file scaled down registration statements and incorporate by reference their
prior periodic filings – e.g., Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Pursuant to Instruction 1 1 (a) of Form S-3, an
issuer utilizing Form S-3 must disclose “any and all material changes in the registrant’s affairs
which have occurred since the end of the latest fiscal year for which certified financial statements
were included in the latest annual report to shareholders and which have not been described in a
report on Form 10-Q or Form 8-K filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.” [Emphasis
added.]
45. Accordingly, an issuer utilizing Form S-3 is required to update the information in its
periodic filings including information concerning “known trends and uncertainties” with respect to
“net sales or revenues or income from continuing operations” which is required to be disclosed in
SEC periodic filings pursuant to Item 303(a) of Regulation S-K. Under Item 303(a) an issuer is
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 26 of 64
required to “describe any known trends or uncertainties that have had or that the registrant
reasonably expects will have a material favorable or unfavorable impact on net sales or revenues or
income from continuing operations.”
46. Here, the Registration Statement negligently failed to disclose several “material
changes” to iStar’s continuing operations which were required to be disclosed pursuant to Instruction
1 1 (a). None of these “material changes” were disclosed in the SEC filings that iStar incorporated by
reference in the Registration Statement and, therefore, the Registration Statement omitted to state
material facts required to be stated therein in violation of the Securities Act.
47. The Material Decline In Debt Security Values: By the time of the Secondary
Offering, the amount of the unrealized losses on iStar’s held-to-maturity investments had increased
by approximately $60 million -- almost 100% since the end of its third quarter, the period ended
September 30, 2007. These increased losses represented more than twenty (20) percent of all
income from continuing operations iStar reported during the first nine months of 2007.
48. On or about November 9, 2007, iStar filed its Form 10-Q with the SEC for the third
quarter of 2007, the period ending September 30, 2007 (the “Third Quarter 10-Q”). The Third
Quarter 10-Q was incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement.
49. With respect to the iStar’s held-to-maturity investments, the Third Quarter 10-Q
stated, in pertinent part:
As of September 30, 2007, the carrying value of Other Lending Investment-Securities includes $586.2 million of held-to-maturity investments with an aggregatefair value of $526.9 million and gross unrealized gains and losses of $8.1 million and$67.3 million, respectively.
50. By the time of the Secondary Offering, however, iStar had suffered a material,
incremental unrealized loss on its held-to-maturity investments of approximately $60 million. In
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 27 of 64
particular, the Company incurred material incremental losses on its undisclosed Linens ‘n Things
(“LNT”) and WCI Communities (“WCI”) debt securities.
51. At the time of the Secondary Offering, both LNT and WCI were in dire financial
condition and were on the brink of bankruptcy. In fact, the price of LNT and WCI debt securities
held by iStar declined by approximately 50% in value from early 2007 through the date of the
Secondary Offering.
52. Defendants knew that iStar’s held-to-maturity investments had experienced a material
decline in the value between September 30, 2007 and the time of the Secondary Offering on or about
December 14, 2007 as the prices of the debt securities of LNT and WCI had traded in the bond
market at severely depressed prices for an extended period of time. Defendants also knew that
applicable accounting standards required that the Company record a charge for the impairment in the
value of iStar’s held-to-maturity investments during the fourth quarter of 2007.
53. Indeed, Defendants knew or negligently ignored the following adverse facts about
WCI and LNT that were in existence at the time of the Secondary Offering:
WCI
• On November 7, 2007, PrimeNews Wire reported that Jerry Starkey, Presidentand CEO of WCI stated ‘this prolonged downturn requires that we continueto assess our overhead and make reductions in order to remain viable throughthe trough of this cycle” and that “WCI announced another significantreduction to its workforce in response to continued soft demand in itsmarkets.” As a part of this restructuring, iStar combined several lines ofbusiness, implemented a net reduction in force of about 575 employeeswhich, when combined with previous reductions in force represented a 46%decline from its 2006 employment level, and its Board of Directorssignificantly reduce its compensation with six board members agreeing toforego all director compensation.
• On November 8, 2007, The Associated Press reported, “Moody’s onThursday cut its credit ratings on struggling Florida homebuilder WCICommunities Inc. deeper into junk status and suggested they could moveeven lower as the housing slump worsens. The credit rating agency cut
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 28 of 64
WCI’s corporate family rating to Caa2 from B3, and the ratings on its seniorsubordinated notes to Caa3 from Caa2. Moody’s cited WCI’s “substantiallyweaker-than-expected cash flow generation, continued difficulties incomplying with bank covenants, accelerating losses and increasing debtleverage.”
• November 12, 2007, the shares of WCI trade at a ten year low, decliningfrom more than $20 per share in early 2007 to less than $5 per share at thetime of the Secondary Offering.
• On November 15, 2007, WCI Communities Inc reported that EBITDA for itstwelve months ended September 30, 2007 was a negative $(62,064,000),compared with a positive EBITDA of $288,411,000 for the comparable yearearlier twelve months.
• On November 27, 2007, The New York Sun, reported, “A Banc of AmericaSecurities analyst, Daniel Oppenheim, is one of a number of homebuildinganalysts who takes a dim view of WCI, which is awash in red ink. In its mostrecent quarter, WCI reported a loss of $1.66 a share, much greater than Streetexpectations, in large part due to higher charges. Liquidity issues are likelyto increase, Mr. Oppenheim warns, citing a deteriorating cash flow outlook.The company has reported it is not in compliance with its fixed-chargedcovenant and the analyst expects lenders to be less flexible in renegotiations,given the deterioration in Florida. Even if a favorable income is reached,WCI will have just $210 million in liquidity, which Mr. Oppenheim believeswill quickly erode.
• On November 20, 2007, Thomson Financial News reported, “Standard &Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its junk corporate credit rating on WCICommunities Inc to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC+’, citing a sharp spike in cancelledcontracts to buy the company’s luxury high-rise condominiums and thecompany’s need to once again renegotiate the terms of its revolving creditfacility. The outlook on WCI remains negative.
• On December 3, 2007, Market News Publishing, Inc., reported “Of the 24builders Standard & Poor’s rates, five are currently in the ‘BBB’ category,seven are in the ‘BB’ category, and 10 are in the ‘B’ category. The other twocompanies have fallen into the low speculative-grade realm: WCICommunities is rated ‘CCC’ and TOUSA is rated ‘CC’. U.S. homebuildersface an array of challenges at this point in the housing cycle, many of whichwill likely worsen before they improve. While unit deliveries were up in therecent fiscal quarter, there’s little evidence to suggest that companies will beable to quickly replenish shrinking order backlogs. Additionally, impairmentcharges were huge in the recent fiscal quarter, as builders wrote off $6 billionon inventory, goodwill, and option deposits as home prices continued to driftlower and absorption slowed.”
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 29 of 64
• In its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, WCI disclosedthat is was not in compliance with a debt covenant under a revolving creditfacility and term loan agreement.
LNT
• On August 15, 2007, Deutsche Bank Securities reiterated its Sell rating onLNT’s bonds.
• On October 2, 2007, Fitch Ratings Downgraded LNT as follows: IssuerDefault Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC’ from ‘B-’; Asset-based revolver to ‘B-/RR2’from ‘B+/RR2’; Senior secured notes to ‘CCC-/RR5’ from ‘CCC/RR6’. TheRating Outlook is Stable. The downgrades reflected LNT’s continued weakoperating performance which has resulted in worsening credit metrics andnegative cash flow generation as well as the challenging operatingenvironment and intense competition from other specialty retailers,discounters and department stores in the home furnishings segment.
• On October 15, 2007, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services slashed thecorporate credit rating on LNT to ‘B-’ from ‘B’ and removed the ratings fromCreditWatch, where they had been placed with negative implications on Nov.17, 2006 and lowered the bank loan rating on the Company’s $650 millionfloating-rate senior secured notes to ‘CCC’ (two notches below its corporatecredit rating). The downgrade was a result of LNTs’ “continued weakoperating performance and poor profitability and productivity relative to itskey competitor” as well as a “very high debt leverage and extremely thininterest coverage.” Standard & Poor’s also announced that the outlook wasnegative.
• On November 13, 2007, LNT reported that adjusted EBITDA for the thirdquarter of 2007, the quarter ended September 30, 2007 was negative ($3)million compared with adjusted EBITDA of positive $21.5 million in thethird quarter of 2006, a decrease of $24.5 million.
54. Defendants negligently failed to disclose the approximate $60 million incremental
unrealized loss on iStar’s held-to-maturity investments that constituted a “material change” in the
Company’s operations. Since such incremental loss was then having, and would have, a material
unfavorable impact on the Company’s operating income, it was required to be disclosed in the
Registration Statement. The disclosure concerning an approximate $60 million decline in the value
of iStar’s held-to-maturity investments securities would have materially altered the total mix of
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 30 of 64
information available to investors in the Secondary Offering as it would have provided information
necessary for an informed investment decision about the Company’s income and assets.
55. On February 28, 2008, in connection with announcing its financial results for the
fourth quarter of 2007 and fiscal year 2007, the periods ending December 31, 2007, iStar announced,
among other things, that it recorded a $135 million charge associated with the “impairment of two
credits.” The facts and circumstances that caused the Company to take this charge as of December
31, 2007, existed on December 14, 2007, the date of the Secondary Offering, and were, therefore,
required to be disclosed in the Registration Statement, but were not.
56. Furthermore, iStar blamed its disappointing 2007 fourth quarter financial results on
the impairment charge it recorded on its held-to-maturity investments. Accordingly, by Defendants’
own admission, the charge iStar recorded in connection with the decline in value of such debt
securities negatively impacted the Company’s continuing operating results during the fourth quarter
of 2007.
57. The Material Increase in Loan Losses: The Registration Statement also negligently
failed to disclose that losses in iStar’s loan portfolio increased dramatically between September 30,
2007 and the time of the Secondary Offering.
58. During the fourth quarter of 2007, the economic and financial conditions deteriorated
significantly. These trends and events had a material adverse effect on market liquidity generally
and the value of iStar’s loan portfolio specifically.
59. During the first nine months of 2007, iStar recorded a cumulative $72 million charge
against earnings for loan losses. For the fourth quarter of 2007, the last three months of 2007, iStar
recorded a $113 million charge for loan losses. This amount exceed the total loan losses iStar
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 31 of 64
reported during the first nine months of 2007 combined by 57% and approximated forty percent of
all of the income iStar reported from continuing operations during the first nine months of 2007.
60. Indeed, Defendants knew that iStar’s loan portfolio had experienced material decline
in value between September 30, 2007 and the time of the Secondary Offering on or about December
14, 2007. At the Investor Conference, just days before the Secondary Offering, Defendant O’Conner
represented to investors that management monitored iStar’s portfolio risk on a real-time basis,
stating, in pertinent part:
We can understand the risk in the portfolio, we assessed it at the outset, we continuedto monitor that risk throughout the life of the investment so we can actuallyunderstand what’s going on in our portfolio on a real-time basis. [Emphasisadded.]
61. Defendants negligently failed to disclose the approximate $110 million incremental
increase in iStar’s loan loss reserves that constituted a “material change” in the Company’s
operations. Since such incremental increase in loan loss reserves was then having, and would have,
a material unfavorable impact on the Company’s operating income, it was required to be disclosed in
the Registration Statement. The disclosure concerning an approximate $110 million increase in
iStar’s loan loss reserves would have materially altered the total mix of information available to
investors in the Secondary Offering as it would have provided.
62. On February 28, 2008, in connection with announcing its financial results for the
fourth quarter of 2007 and fiscal year 2007, the periods ending December 31, 2007, iStar announced,
among other things, that it recorded a $113 million charge associated with an increase in its loan loss
reserves. The facts and circumstances that caused the Company to take this charge as of December
31, 2007, existed on December 14, 2007, the date of the Secondary Offering and were, therefore,
required to be disclosed in the Registration Statement, but were not.
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Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 32 of 64
63. Furthermore, iStar blamed its disappointing 2007 fourth quarter financial results on
the charge it recorded on the increase in its loan loss reserves. Accordingly, by Defendants’ own
admission, the charge iStar recorded in connection with the decline in value of its loan portfolio
negatively impacted the Company’s continuing operating results during the fourth quarter of 2007.
64. Material Decline in Credit Quality: The Registration Statement negligently failed
to disclose that iStar had a material increase in the amount of its NPLs and watch list assets.
65. In the Third quarter 10-Q, which was incorporated by reference in the Registration
Statement, contained a chart detailing the Company’s loan loss reserves, NPLs and watch list assets
as follows:
Risk ManagementLoan Credit Statistics--The table below summarizes our non-performing loans and detailsthe reserve for loan losses associated with our loans (in thousands):
As of As ofSeptember 30, 2007 December 31, 2006
Non-performing loans
Carrying value $428,694 $61,480
Participated portion 420,020 --
Gross book value $848,714 $61,480
As a percentage of total assets 5.5% 0.6%
As a percentage of total loans 8.4% 1.0%
Reserve for loan losses $124,201 $52,201
As a percentage of total loans 1.2% 0.9%
Watch list loans
Carrying value $610,536 $147,800
Participated portion 485,280
Gross book value $1,095,816 $147,800
Non-Performing Loans--All non-performing loans are placed on non-accrual statusand income is recognized only upon actual cash receipt. We designate loans as non-performing at such time as: (1) management determines the borrower is incapable of,or has ceased efforts towards, curing the cause of an impairment; (2) the loanbecomes 90 days delinquent; (3) the loan has a maturity default; or (4) the net
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realizable value of the loan’s underlying collateral approximates our carrying valueof such loan. As of September 30, 2007, we had 29 non-performing loans with anaggregate carrying value of $428.7 million and an aggregate gross book value of$848.7 million, or 5.5% of total assets. Management believes there is adequatecollateral and reserves to support the book values of the loans.
* * *
Watch List Assets--We conduct a quarterly comprehensive credit review, resulting inan individual risk rating being assigned to each asset. This review is designed toenable management to evaluate and proactively manage asset-specific credit issuesand identify credit trends on a portfolio-wide basis as an “early warning system.” Asof September 30, 2007, we had 28 assets on the credit watch list, excluding thoseassets included in non-performing loans above, with an aggregate carrying value of$610.5 million and an aggregate gross book value of $1.10 billion, or 7.2% of totalassets.
66. By the time the Secondary Offering, on or about December 14, 2007, the carrying
value of iStar’s NPLs increased by more than 50% since September 30, 2007 and the carrying value
of iStar’s watch list assets increased by approximately 100% since September 30, 2007.
67. Defendants knew that between September 30, 2007 and the time of the Secondary
Offering on or about December 14, 2007, the credit quality of iStar’s loan portfolio declined
precipitously causing a sharp spike in the Company’s NPLs and watch list assets by the time of the
Secondary Offering. In fact, as noted above, just days before the Secondary Offering during the
Investor Conference, Defendant O’Conner represented to investors that management inspected the
Company’s 4 and 5 rated loans (which composed 92% of iStar’s NPLs and watch list assets) “every
week, if not more.”
Misleading Risk Disclosures
68. Pursuant to Item 3 of Form S-3 the Registration Statement was required to furnish the
information pursuant to Item 503 of Regulation S-K [ 17 C.F.R. §229.303], including, among other
things, a “discussion of the most significant factors that make the offering risky or speculative.”
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69. The Registration Statement incorporated by reference the “Risk Factors” set forth in
iStar’s 2006 Form 10-K. None of these so-called risk disclosures were meaningful or advised
investors in the Secondary Offering of the problems in the Company’s corporate loan and debt
portfolio then impacting the Company’s operations as they characterized any impairment and credit
issues as prospective when, in fact, the Company was then being negatively impacted by the
problems. Indeed, the crisis in the U. S. financial markets had increased dramatically from the time
iStar filed its 2006 Form 10-K with the SEC and the Secondary Offering in mid-December 2007.
70. Accordingly, the Registration Statement negligently failed to disclose the most
significant factors that made the Secondary Offering risky or speculative as required by Item 3 of
Form S-3, including the extent to which deterioration in the economy and financial markets
adversely affected the quality of iStar’s loan portfolio.
Inaccurate Financial Statements
71. As noted above, the Registration Statement and the Prospectus incorporated by
reference the financial statements contained in iStar’s 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K and its
2007 Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
72. The unaudited financial statements included in the Third Quarter 10-Q were
materially inaccurate in that they negligently failed to disclose facts, referred to under Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) as “subsequent events,” evidencing the adverse
conditions loans that were reasonably likely to have a material effect on the value of certain of the
Company’s investments in debt securities. These facts, which were required to be disclosed
pursuant to GAAP, were necessary to make the interim financial statements not false and/or
misleading. Regulation S-X [17 C.F.R. §210.4-01.(a)(1)] states that financial statements filed with
the SEC that are not prepared in conformity with GAAP are presumed to be misleading and
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inaccurate. GAAP are those principles recognized by the accounting profession as the conventions,
rules and procedures necessary to define accepted accounting practices at a particular time.
Generally Accepted Auditing Standard (“GAAS”) AU §411.02.
73. GAAP, in its Emerging Issues Task Force (“EITF”) Topic D-86, provides:
A registrant and its independent auditor have responsibilities with regard to post-balance-sheet-date subsequent events, as well as the application of authoritativeliterature applicable to such events.
74. Concerning subsequent events, EITF Topic D-86 makes reference to the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s (“AICPA”) Statement on Auditing Standards (“SAS”) No.
1, Subsequent Events (or AU §560), which, in pertinent part, states:
[E]vents or transactions sometimes occur subsequent to the balance-sheet date, butprior to the issuance of the financial statements that have a material effect on thefinancial statements and therefore require adjustment or disclosure in the statements.These occurrences hereinafter are referred to as “subsequent events.”
The first type [of subsequent event] consists of those events that provide additionalevidence with respect to conditions that existed at the date of the balance sheet andaffect the estimates inherent in the process of preparing financial statements. . . .
The second type [of subsequent event] consists of those events that provide evidencewith respect to conditions that did not exist at the date of the balance sheet beingreported on but arose subsequent to that date. These events should not result inadjustment of the financial statements. Some of these events, however, may be ofsuch a nature that disclosure of them is required to keep the financialstatements from being misleading. . . .
* * *
When financial statements are reissued, for example, in reports filed with theSecurities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory agencies, events thatrequire disclosure in the reissued financial statements to keep them from beingmisleading may have occurred subsequent to the original issuance of the financialstatements. [Emphasis added.]
75. iStar’s financial statements in the Third Quarter 10-Q falsely represented that “[t]he
accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with
the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10-01 of Regulation S-X for interim financial statements.”
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76. Article 10 of Regulation S-X [17 C.F.R. §210.10-01.(a)(5)] provides, in pertinent
part, that:
• Interim financial information shall include disclosure either on the face of thefinancial statements or in accompanying footnotes sufficient so as to make theinterim information presented not misleading;
• Disclosure shall be provided where events subsequent to the end of the most recentfiscal year have occurred which have a material impact on the registrant; and
• Where material contingencies exist, disclosure of such matters shall be provided eventhough a significant change since year end may not have occurred.
77. iStar misrepresented that the interim financial statements were presented in
conformity with the requirements of Article 10 of Regulation S-X.
78. As noted above, by the time the Registration Statement was declared effective by the
SEC, the deteriorating economic and financial conditions had a material adverse effect on the value
of iStar’s loan portfolio. In fact, between September 30, 2007 and the Secondary Offering, the
value of iStar’s loan portfolio declined by almost $170 million dollars, an amount that wiped
out almost 60% of iStar’s earnings from its continuing operations during the first nine months
of 2007.
79. These material “subsequent events,” which were required to be disclosed pursuant to
GAAP and the requirements of Article 10 of Regulation S-X, were negligently omitted from the
financial statements incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement and Prospectus.
80. Accordingly, iStar negligently misrepresented in the Registration Statement and
Prospectus that its financial statements were presented in conformity with GAAP and Article 10 of
Regulation S-X, thereby rendering the Registration Statement materially inaccurate.
81. In addition to the violations of GAAP noted above, the financial statements
incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement were presented in violation of at least the
following provisions of GAAP:
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(a) The principle that financial statements disclose loss contingencies when it is
reasonably likely that a loss has been incurred. (Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 5);
(b) The principle that financial statements disclose certain significant risks and
uncertainties. (Statement of Position No. 94-6);
(c) The concept that financial reporting should provide information that is useful
to present and potential investors and creditors and other users in making rational investment, credit
and similar decisions. (Statement of Concepts (“Concepts Statement”) No. 1, ¶34);
(d) The concept that financial reporting should provide information about the
economic resources of an enterprise, the claims to those resources, and the effects of transactions,
events and circumstances that change resources and claims to those resources. (Concepts Statement
No. 1, ¶40);
(e) The concept that financial reporting should provide information about how
management of an enterprise has discharged its stewardship responsibility to owners (stockholders)
for the use of enterprise resources entrusted to it. To the extent that management offers securities of
the enterprise to the public, it voluntarily accepts wider responsibilities for accountability to
prospective investors and to the public in general. (Concepts Statement No. 1, ¶50);
(f) The concept that financial reporting should provide information about an
enterprise’s financial performance during a period. Investors and creditors often use information
about the past to help in assessing the prospects of an enterprise. Thus, although investment and
credit decisions reflect investors’ expectations about future enterprise performance, those
expectations are commonly based at least partly on evaluations of past enterprise performance.
(Concepts Statement No. 1, ¶42);
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(g) The concept of completeness, which means that nothing is left out of the
information that may be necessary to ensure that it validly represents underlying events and
conditions. (Concepts Statement No. 2, ¶79); and
(h) The concept that conservatism be used as a prudent reaction to uncertainty to
try to ensure that uncertainties and risks inherent in business situations are adequately considered.
The best way to avoid injury to investors is to try to ensure that what is reported represents what it
purports to represent. (Concepts Statement No. 2, ¶¶95, 97).
82. The failure to incorporate by reference in the Registration Statement financial
statements that conformed to the requirements of GAAP and Regulation S-X rendered the
Registration Statement materially inaccurate.
Post-Secondary Offering Disclosures
83. On February 28, 2008, iStar issued a press release announcing its financial results for
the fourth quarter of 2007 and full year 2007, the periods ending December 31, 2007. For the fourth
quarter, the Company reported that its financial results were impacted by $134.9 million of charges
associated with the “impairment of two credits” and a $113 million increase in its loan loss
provisions. These two charges, which totaled approximately a quarter of a billon dollars,
effectively wiped out close to 90% of the earnings iStar reported from its continuing operations
during the first nine months of 2007. In addition, the Company reported that during the fourth
quarter the amount of its NPLs and watch list assets increased by more than 65% and 100%,
respectively. The press release, stated, in pertinent part:
• Our quarterly earnings include both increased reserves and mark-to-marketimpairments, reflecting the impact of the current credit environment on specificinvestments in our portfolio, as well as the continued stresses in the overallmarket.
• Included in fourth quarter earnings were $134.9 million of non-cash chargesassociated with the impairment of two credits that are accounted for as held-to-
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maturity debt securities in its Corporate Loan and Debt portfolio. These securitiesare performing and continue to pay interest. Accounting standards for thesesecurities do not allow for loan loss reserves to be taken on these assets; thestandards require that the value be impaired based on a significant drop in marketprice and on management’s current assessment that the decline is other thantemporary.
• The Company had $217.9 million in loan loss reserves at December 31, 2007 versus$52.2 million at December 31, 2006. During the fourth quarter, the Companyrecorded $113.0 million in loan loss provision versus $62.0 million in the priorquarter. The $51.0 million quarter-over-quarter increase reflects the continueddeterioration in the overall credit markets and its impact on the Company’s portfolioas determined in its regular quarterly risk ratings review process.
• As expected, non-performing loans and watch list assets increased from the priorquarter. On December 31, 2007, the Company had 31 loans on NPL statusrepresenting $1.2 billion of gross loan value, compared to 29 loans on NPL statusrepresenting $848.7 million of gross loan value in the prior quarter. At the end of thefourth quarter, the Company had 40 loans on its watch list representing $1.6 billionof gross loan value, compared to 28 loans on its watch list representing $1.1 billionof gross loan value in the prior quarter. [Emphasis added.]
84. That same day, iStar held a conference call with securities analysts to discuss iStar’s
fourth quarter results and operations. On the conference call, Defendants Sugarman and Rice
discussed the charges and increases in reserves, stating, in pertinent part, as follows:
Defendant Sugarman:
First, on the earnings front, our fourth quarter earnings included two unusual items,$135 million in non-cash impairments in our corporate loan invest portfolio and anincrease loan loss provision of approximately $50 million higher than expected.
* * *
I would say as just a characterization, the fourth quarter was unusual.
Defendant Rice:
Our fourth quarter earnings clearly reflect the impact of the current creditenvironment on certain of our investments, as well as the continued stress in theoverall market. Our adjusted earnings resulted in a loss this quarter of $36.6 million,or a loss of $0.29 per diluted common share.
Included in fourth quarter earnings were $135 million of non-cash charges associatedwith the impairment of two credits in our corporate loan and debt portfolio.
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Excluding the effect of the impairment for these two credits, adjusted earnings for thefourth quarter were $95.4 million or $0.74 per diluted common share.
Let me provide you with some background on the impairments. We took a non-cashimpairment charge totaling $135 million on two credits, which are accounted for asheld to maturity debt securities. Both credits are performing and continue to payinterest. The accounting for these securities does not allow loan loss provisions to betaken against them, but requires that the value be impaired based on a significantdrop in market value for an extended or other than temporary period of time.
* * *
As we mentioned earlier, we took a relatively conservative stance based on thecontinued deterioration of the market and the impact we expect it to have onour portfolio. If the increase from our third quarter to our fourth quarter loanloss provision was also excluded, adjusted earnings per share would have been$4.14, in line with our guidance. However, the market has deterioratedsomewhat more than we expected over the last quarter, and we believed it wasprudent to increase our loan loss provision accordingly, or by $51 million morethan we originally modeled for the fourth quarter.
* * *
[T]o the extent assets in that portfolio trade down significantly on a more thantemporary basis, we are acquired to take an impairment based on the markettrading. So that group of assets, as we outlined, is only about $423 million. Wetook an impairment on two of the six assets in that bucket. And I’m sure you’re wellaware that the corporate debt market is being subjected to some fairly draconiantrading levels at this point. I think at the end of the quarter we felt, althoughwe’re still relatively confident in both of these assets, that we needed to take thisimpairment based on the market price.
85. In response to the above statements, the price of iStar common stock declined
approximately 12%.
86. During the next few days, iStar’s common stock continued to decline as analysts
downgraded their opinions of the Company, representing, in pertinent part:
Credit Suisse - February 28, 2008
NPLs Increase Across the Board
iStar Financial reported a 4Q adjusted EPS loss of $0.29, well below ourestimate ($1.07). Credit losses, both asset impairments and higherprovisioning, accounted for the lower than expected earnings.
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Deutsche Bank - February 28, 2008
Downgrading to Hold given near-term risks
We are downgrading iStar to Hold from Buy, as we are concerned aboutnear-term market deterioration resulting in continued elevated lossprovisions. We believe these elevated loss provisions as well as increasingnonperforming loans could result in depressed earnings during the next fewquarters.
* * *
Given the expectation of lower near-term earnings, management reduced2008 adjusted earnings guidance to $3.50 to $4.00 per share from $4.00 to$4.20 per share.
Deutsche Bank - February 29, 2008
Disappointing 4Q results and 2008 guidance
We are reducing our 2008 estimate and price target after disappointing 4Qresults. While we expect book value and the current yield to provide supportfor shares, our Hold rating reflects our belief that near-term upside is unlikelygiven concerns regarding loss provisions and increasing NPLs. While ournew target is $26.50 per share, we believe our Hold rating is appropriategiven near-term risks.
* * *
Reducing price target to $26.50 per share from $42 per share
While our prior target was based on applying a 10x multiple to our 2008adjusted earnings estimate, our new price target is based on applying a 7xmultiple to our new 2009 adjusted earnings estimate. Given the near-termconcerns (loss provisions and NPLs) and reduced visibility for our out yearestimate, we believe a 7x multiple is appropriate. Historically, iStar hastraded in a range of 6-13x forward adjusted earnings. While our targetrepresents upside from the recent close price, we believe current risks limitnear-term upside warranting a Hold rating.
87. On March 5, 2008 Citibank issued a downgrade on iStar stock.
88. On March 6, 2008, iStar stock was downgraded by Smith Barney, and the Company
announced that Defendant Radesca reigned from his position as CAO on February 29, 2008.
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89. Following Defendants’ admissions regarding the impairment charges and increase in
loan loss reserves, the price of iStar’s common stock closed at $13.98, less than half of the price it
sold for in the Secondary Offering and its closing high during the Class Period.
90. In its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, the period that concluded
just ten additional business days from the time of the Secondary Offering, iStar disclosed that it
recorded a charge for impairment of two credits, materially increased loan loss reserves and that the
value of it NPLs and watch list assets increased dramatically. The Form 10-K, stated, in pertinent
part:
During the fourth quarter, we took a $134.9 million non-cash impairmentcharge on two of our credits accounted for as held-to-maturity debt securitiesthat have traded well below our carrying value.
In addition, based on increased risks in our loan portfolio, including thoseassociated with the Fremont acquired loans, as well as the deterioration ineconomic and financial conditions, we had provisions for loan losses of $185.0million during the year, versus $14.0 million in 2006 and $2.3 million in 2005.With the addition of the Fremont portfolio, we had material increases in ourwatch list and non-performing loans. Our total loss coverage, defined as thecombination of loan loss reserves and the remaining purchase discount on theacquisition, was $384.8 million or 3.6% of total loans, at the end of the year. Theimpairments and additional loan loss reserves negatively impacted our returnon common book equity and our adjusted return on common book equity thisyear. [Emphasis added.]
COUNT I
Violations of Section 11 of the Securities ActAgainst All Defendants
91. Plaintiffs repeat and reallege each and every allegation contained above as if fully set
forth herein.
92. This Count is brought pursuant to Section 11 of the Securities Act, 15 U.S.C. §77k,
and is asserted against all Defendants. For purposes of this Count, Plaintiffs affirmatively state that
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they do not claim that Defendants committed intentional or reckless misconduct or that Defendants
acted with scienter or fraudulent intent.
93. Plaintiffs purchased shares of iStar common stock directly in the Secondary Offering.
94. The Registration Statement, Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements for the
Secondary Offering was defective and inaccurate, contained untrue statements of material facts,
omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading, and omitted to
state material facts required to be stated therein.
95. Defendant iStar is the registrant for the Secondary Offering. As such, iStar is strictly
liable for the materially inaccurate statements contained in the Registration Statement, Prospectus
and Prospectus Supplements and the failure of the Registration Statement, Prospectus and Prospectus
Supplements to be complete and accurate.
96. The Individual Defendants each caused the issuance of the Registration Statement
and/or signed the Registration Statement, either personally or through an Attorney-in-Fact. The
Individual Defendants each had a duty to make a reasonable and diligent investigation of the
truthfulness and accuracy of the statements contained in the Registration Statement. They had a duty
to ensure that such statements were true and accurate and that there were no omissions of material
facts that would make the statements misleading. In the exercise of reasonable care, the Individual
Defendants knew or should have known of the material misstatements and omissions contained in
the Registration Statement, Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements and also should have known of
the omissions of material fact necessary to make the statements made therein not misleading. As
such, the Individual Defendants are liable to Plaintiffs and the Class.
97. The Underwriter Defendants were each underwriters, as that term is used in Section
1 1 (a)(5) of the Securities Act, with respect to the Secondary Offering and the Company’s securities
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sold through the Registration Statement. The Underwriter Defendants were required to investigate
with due diligence the representations contained therein to confirm that they did not contain
materially misleading statements or omit material facts. None of the Underwriter Defendants made a
reasonable investigation or possessed reasonable grounds for the belief that the statements described
herein, which were contained in the Registration Statement, Prospectus or Prospectus Supplements,
were true, were without omission of any material facts, and/or were not misleading.
98. Lead Plaintiffs acquired iStar common stock in the Secondary Offering or traceable
thereto in reliance upon the defective Registration Statement, Prospectus or Prospects Supplements
and without knowledge of the untruths and/or omissions alleged herein. Plaintiffs and the Class
sustained damages when the price of iStar common stock declined substantially due to material
misstatements and/or omissions in the Registration Statement, Prospectus and Prospectus
Supplements.
99. By reasons of the conduct herein alleged, each Defendant violated, and/or controlled
a person who violated, Section 11 of the Securities Act.
100. This action was brought within one year after the discovery of the untrue statements
and omissions and within three years of the date of the Secondary Offering.
COUNT II
Violations of Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities ActAgainst All Defendants
101. Plaintiffs repeat and reallege each and every allegation contained above as if fully set
forth herein.
102. This Count is brought pursuant to Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act, 15 U.S.C.
§77l, on behalf of Plaintiffs and the Class, against all Defendants. For purposes of this Count,
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Plaintiffs affirmatively state that they do not claim that Defendants committed intentional or reckless
misconduct or that Defendants acted with scienter or fraudulent intent.
103. Defendants issued, caused to be issued and/or signed the Registration Statement in
connection with the Secondary Offering. The Registration Statement contained a Prospectus and
Prospectus Supplements which was used to induce investors, such as the Lead Plaintiffs and the
other members of the Class, to purchase iStar common stock.
104. The Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements contained untrue statements of material
fact, omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading, and omitted
material facts required to be stated therein. The Individual Defendants’ actions of solicitation to
promote the Secondary Offering included participating in the Investor Conference and the
preparation of a defective and inaccurate Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements.
105. Defendant iStar and the Underwriter Defendants, acting through their employees,
agents and others, solicited such purchases for their personal financial gain through the preparation
and/or dissemination of the Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements.
106. Pursuant to the Prospectus Supplements, the Underwriter Defendants purchased at
least 6,912,000 iStar common stock at the public offering price, less an underwriting discount, in the
Secondary Offering.
107. The Underwriter Defendants participated in the preparation and dissemination of the
defective and inaccurate Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements for their own financial benefit. But
for their participation in the Secondary Offering, including their solicitation as set forth herein, the
Secondary Offering could not and would not have been accomplished. Specifically, the Underwriter
Defendants:
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(a) made the decision to conduct the Secondary Offering and do it at the price set
forth in the offering documents. The Underwriter Defendants drafted, revised and/or approved the
Prospectus and Prospectus Supplement. The Prospectus was calculated to create interest in iStar
common stock and was widely distributed by or on behalf of the Underwriter Defendants for that
purpose;
(b) finalized the Prospectus and caused it to become effective; and
(c) conceived and planned the Secondary Offering and orchestrated all activities
necessary to affect the sale of these securities to the investing public, by issuing securities,
promoting the securities and supervising their distribution and ultimate sale to the investing public.
108. As set forth more specifically above, the Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements
contained untrue statements of material fact and omitted to state material facts necessary in order to
make the statements, in light of circumstances in which they were made, not misleading.
109. Plaintiffs and the other Class members did not know, nor could they have known, of
the untruths or omissions contained in the Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements.
110. The Defendants named in this Count were obligated to make a reasonable and diligent
investigation of the statements contained in the Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements to ensure
that such statements were true and that there was no omission of material fact required to be stated in
order to make the statements contained therein not misleading. None of the Defendants named in
this Count made a reasonable investigation or possessed reasonable grounds for the belief that the
statements contained in the Prospectus and Prospectus Supplements were accurate and complete in
all material respects. Had they done so, these Defendants would have known of the material
misstatements and omissions alleged herein.
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111. By reason of the conduct alleged herein, these Defendants violated Section 12(a)(2)
of the Securities Act. Accordingly, Lead Plaintiffs and members of the Class who hold iStar
common stock that was purchased in the Secondary Offering have the right to rescind and recover
the consideration paid for their iStar common shares and hereby elect to rescind and tender their
iStar common stock to the Defendants sued herein. Plaintiff and Class members who have sold their
iStar common stock are entitled to rescissory damages.
COUNT III
Violation of Section 15 of the Securities ActAgainst the Individual Defendants
112. Plaintiffs repeat and reallege each and every allegation contained above as if fully set
forth herein.
113. This Count is brought pursuant to Section 15 of the Securities Act against the
Individual Defendants. For purposes of this Count, Plaintiffs affirmatively state that they do not
claim that Defendants committed intentional or reckless misconduct or that Defendants acted with
scienter or fraudulent intent.
114. Each of the Individual Defendants acted as controlling persons of iStar within the
meaning of Section 15 of the Securities Act by virtue of his position as a director and/or senior
officer of iStar. By reason of their senior management positions and/or directorships at the
Company, as alleged above, these Individual Defendants, individually and acting pursuant to a
common plan, had the power to influence and exercised the same to cause iStar to engage in the
conduct complained of herein. By reason of such conduct, the Individual Defendants are liable
pursuant to Section 15 of the Securities Act.
115. Each of the Individual Defendants was a culpable participant in the violations of
Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act alleged in Counts I and II above, based on their having
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signed the Registration Statement and/or having otherwise participated in the process which allowed
the Secondary Offering to be successfully completed.
Exchange Act Count Allegations
116. For the purposes of this section of the Complaint, the term “Defendants” refers only
to Defendants iStar, Sugarman, Rice, and O’Conner.
117. On December 6, 2007, approximately seven days before the Secondary Offering,
iStar held the Investor Conference at the New York Public Library. iStar’s carefully choreographed
Investor Conference presentation deceived investors about the Company in advance of the
Secondary Offering. Defendants engaged in this fraudulent conduct to help insure a successful stock
offering so that iStar would be able to procure the much-needed capital which was necessary to pay
its maturing short-term credit facility at a time when the market conditions for capital raising had
screeched to a decided halt.
118. For example, at the Investor Conference, Defendant Sugarman voiced a key objective
of the conference: “part of our job is to spread the message of how safe our balance sheet really
is.” Defendants then proceeded to highlight “the strength” of iStar’s balance sheet by professing that
the Company’s loan portfolio: (1) was “mostly senior mortgages”; (2) was “collateralized by high-
quality assets”; (3) were assets that iStar could “underwrite, understand and asset manage”; (4) had
“unrealized gains throughout the portfolio”; (5) was “extremely well protected”; and (6) were
conservatively value assets “a significant discount to replacement cost.”
119. In discussing the market challenges facing the Company, Defendant Sugarman
distinguished iStar’s business risks by stating that the Company did not participate in the
problematic residential and structured products markets and “how different we think our business is
compared to some of those others that you’re going to read about quite a bit in the next year.”
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120. Defendant Sugarman added, “when we look at our basis and we look at our
positions throughout the portfolio, we can state categorically we have a lot of unrealized gains.
I think that surprises some people.”
121. Defendant O’Conner picked up where Defendant Sugarman left off in spreading the
message to the investment community about the purported safety of iStar’s balance sheet when he
referred to a “33% cushion between our last dollar of exposure and the value of the underlying
collateral” that “provides for a lot of room for things to go wrong and for us to still be okay.”
Defendant O’Conner also suggested that iStar’s loan portfolio was safe because of the conservative
bias utilized by the Company in valuing its loan portfolio: “our internal values were some 30% less
than what the market was attributing to those deals.”
122. Defendant O’Conner also deceptively proclaimed iStar’s loss exposure on its loan
portfolio was limited due to three factors: (1) the amount of borrower equity in the Company’s
portfolio; (2) the percentage of senior loans in the Company’s portfolio; and (3) amount of the
Company’s loan loss reserves.
123. Defendant O’Conner then attempted to allay any concerns the investment community
might have about iStar’s NPLs and watch list assets generally, and its newly acquired Fremont’s
NPLs and watch list assets in particular, by deceptively stating that while markets had deteriorated,
iStar’s loan portfolio was “performing pretty much as expected, pretty much as expected.”
Defendant O’Connor, stated, in pertinent part, as follows:
Now, the market’s gotten worse and there are some challenges we have to deal with,but as far as where we underwrote and how the portfolio is performing, it’sperforming pretty much as expected. [Emphasis added.]
124. Defendant O’Conner then respresented that there were “no surprises” with respect to
iStar’s watch lists and suggested that such assets were safe because they were not concentrated in the
most problematic geographic markets:
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And again, from our perspective, no surprises here, no surprises here, and Iwould hope that people would come and say, hey, it looks like some ofthese[geographic] markets, at least right now, that people are very concernedabout, we don’t have a lot of exposure to. [Emphasis added.]
125. Defendant O’Conner continued to “spread the message” about the “safety” associated
with iStar’s balance sheet: “the good news is, as much as the markets are noticeably worse today,
materially worse than they were a year ago, our on-balance sheet reserve, our cushion, is
significantly greater than it was a year ago.”
126. Then, Defendant Rice highlighted the Company’s financial performance during the
first nine months of 2007, reiterated iStar’s 2008 guidance and highlighted the Company’s ability to
increase dividends from its earnings capacity, stating, in pertinent part as follows:
As you’ve heard on our third quarter earnings call, we’ve had solid year-to-datefinancial performance, with adjusted earnings up 11 % and revenues up 45% fromthe same period in 2006. We announced 2008 adjusted earnings guidance of $4 to$4.20. And we continued to deliver strong returns at reasonable leverage levels.We announced a 5% increase to our quarterly dividend, which will be payable inthe fourth quarter. And due to the increase in income that we’re receiving fromthe Fremont portfolio, we’ll be declaring a special dividend in 2007 that shouldbe in the range of $0.15 to $0.30 a share.
127. The statements referenced above in¶¶118-126 were each materially false and
misleading and without reasonable basis when made because they failed to disclose and
misrepresented the following material adverse facts in existence at the time:
(a) that the “unrealized gains” in iStar’s loan portfolio were being offset by ever
increasing unrealized losses, including those on iStar’s held-to-maturity investments, which from
September 30, 2007 through the date of the Investor Day alone, generated losses sufficient to wipe
out almost 60% of all of the income iStar reported from its continuing operations during the first
nine months of 2007;
(b) that iStar’s then existing loan loss reserves were materially insufficient. In
fact, iStar needed to increase its loan loss reserves by approximately $100 million from the time it
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last publicly disclosed its loan loss reserves on September 30, 2007 through the date of the Investor
Day, an amount that exceed the entire loan loss provision iStar reported during the first nine months
of 2007 by almost 40%. This needed increase in iStar’s loan loss reserve effectively wiped out 35%
of all of the income iStar reported from its continuing operations during the first nine months of
2007. Accordingly, iStar’s loan loss reserves were not “adequate,” as Defendants represented;
(c) that the dollar amount of iStar’s NPLs and watch list assets had increased
materially. In fact, from the time iStar last publicly disclosed the amount of its NPLs and watch list
assets on September 30, 2007 through the date of the Investor Day, the dollar amount of iStar’s
NPLs and watch list assets had increased by approximately 50% and 100%, respectively; and
(d) that, as a result of the foregoing, iStar’s balance sheet was not “safe”; it faced
risks not unlike those faced by non-commercial real estate lenders; its loan portfolio did not have an
“embedded cushion,” nor was it conservatively valued; its loan portfolio exposure to loss was not
limited, its 2008 adjusted earnings guidance was stale and required revision; and any dividend
increases or special dividends issued by iStar were one-time in nature not due to “the increase in
income that we are receiving from the Fremont portfolio.”
128. At the time of the Investor Conference, Defendants knew that iStar had an
approximate $135 million unrealized loss on two undisclosed debt securities and that GAAP and the
Company’s accounting policies would require it to record an impairment charge in that approximate
amount during the fourth quarter of 2007. In fact, the unrealized loss on such securities was readily
determinable by Defendants at the time of the Investor Conference as they “traded” openly in the
bond market.
129. Moreover, with only 16 business days remaining in the 2007 fourth quarter at the time
of the Investor Conference, Defendants knew or recklessly ignored that iStar was reasonably likely
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to record more than a $135 million impairment charge on the two securities during the fourth quarter
of 2007 because, as Defendant Rice admitted during iStar’s 2007 fourth quarter conference call with
investors and securities analysts in February 2008, a “significant” loss in the value of the undisclosed
securities existed for “an extended” period of time:
The accounting for these securities . . . requires that the value be impaired based ona significant drop in the market value for an extended or other than temporaryperiod of time. [Emphasis added.]
130. At the time of the Investor Conference, Defendants also knew that iStar was
reasonably likely to dramatically increase its loan loss reserves and the reported amount of its NPLs
and watch list assets by December 31, 2007 because, as Defendant O’Conner represented to
investors at the Investor Conference, management monitored iStar’s loan portfolio on a “real-time”
basis:
We can understand the risk in the portfolio, we assessed it at the outset, wecontinued to monitor that risk throughout the life of the investment so we canactually understand what’s going on in our portfolio on a real-time basis.
Defendant O’Conner also represented:
the first thing we do as a company is we devote a lot of people, a lot of assets anda lot of resources to watching the portfolio. We have 135 people that all they dofrom the time they get up to the time they leave work is watch our portfolio andwatch our assets. That’s all they do. [Emphasis added.]
131. In truth and in fact, employees knowledgeable about iStar’s loan portfolio stated that
at the time of the Investor Conference, economic and financial market conditions were having a
devastating effect on iStar’s financings. For example:
• a former Fremont loan underwriter stated that business in her/his office essentiallystopped in 2007;
• a former Fremont Loan Closer stated lending activity in her/his office came to ascreeching halt and collapsed in 2007;
• a former iStar Senior Loan Associate stated several loans iStar acquired fromFremont, including, Illinois Tollway Oasis, were proceeding to default at or before
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the Investor Conference and that iStar extended loan maturity dates to avoid havingto make adverse disclosures about them. This former iStar employee also stated thatthe Company’s management was aware of iStar’s problem loans, including bondsissued by Linens ‘n Things, Inc., because iStar’s Investment Committee conductedtwice-weekly conference calls with numerous Company employees; and
• a former Fremont Senior Vice President stated that iStar’s Investment Committeeconvened conference calls each Monday and Thursday to monitor the loan portfoliowith the Monday calls being attended by the Company’s loan originators and theThursday calls attended asset mangers.
132. Accordingly, Defendants’ deceptive Investor Conference presentations were
materially false and misleading half-truths that were deliberately designed to inflate the value of the
Company’s stock in advance of the Secondary Offering. Defendants timed the Secondary Offering
so that it was priced before the Company announced its disappointing 2007 fourth quarter financial
results in order to maximize the amount of money they could raise in the Secondary Offering.
Additional Scienter Allegations
133. As alleged herein, Defendants acted with scienter in that Defendants knew, or
recklessly disregarded, that the public documents and statements they issued and disseminated to the
investing public in the name of the Company (or in their own name) on Investor Conference were
materially false and misleading. Defendants knowingly and substantially participated or acquiesced
in the issuance or dissemination of such statements and documents as primary violations of the
federal securities laws. Defendants, by virtue of their receipt of information reflecting the true facts
regarding iStar, their control over, and/or receipt and/or modification of iStar’s allegedly materially
misleading misstatements, were active and culpable participants in the fraudulent scheme alleged
herein.
134. Defendants knew and/or recklessly disregarded the falsity and misleading nature of
the information which they caused to be disseminated to the investing public. The fraudulent
scheme described herein could not have been perpetrated during the Class Period without the
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knowledge and complicity or, at least, the reckless disregard of the personnel at the highest levels of
the Company, including the Individual Defendants.
135. As alleged herein, at the time of the Investor Conference and at the time of the
Secondary Offering, Defendants were aware of then true financial condition of iStar, that the value
of the Company’s loan portfolio had declined precipitously since the Company last reported its
financial results as of September 30, 2007 and that, as a result, it was reasonably likely that iStar,
with only several days remaining before its December 31, 2007 fourth quarter and year end, would
report charges against earnings in hundreds of millions of dollars during the period ending December
31, 2007.
136. Defendants have admitted that they closely monitored the Company’s loan portfolio
and had an intimate understanding of the most risky loans in iStar’s portfolio. Indeed, Defendant
O’Conner admitted at the Investor Conference that the decisions about iStar’s risky 4 and 5
rated loans “isn’t left to somebody that’s out in the field - - It’s done by the senior people in
this Company, and I think that’s a significant differentiator in our business.” Defendant
O’Conner also indicated that management discussed its high risk loans with a 135-person risk
management team and that such discussions occurred “weekly, if not more.”
137. Thus, Defendants pushed forward with the Secondary Offering when they knew that
the value of the Company’s loan portfolio had declined precipitously since the time that the
Company last reported its financial results on September 30, 2007. Rather than updating the
marketplace during the Investor Conference about the true state of the Company’s business,
Defendants permitted the Secondary Offering to occur at a price that was based upon an inaccurate
perception of the Company’s financial performance.
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138. Defendants timed the Secondary Offering so that it was priced before the
announcement of iStar’s disappointing 2007 fourth quarter results in order to maximize the amount
of money that the Company could raise in the Secondary Offering. Given Defendants’ knowledge of
the declining financial condition of iStar and the positive statements, detailed above, made
contemporaneously with that knowledge, Defendants’ materially false and/or misleading statements
alleged herein were made willfully and caused iStar common stock to trade at artificially inflated
prices.
139. The credit crisis that existed during the Class Period was particularly troubling to
lenders like iStar that are structured as REITs. Pursuant to the tax laws, REITs are required to return
much of their cash to shareholders. Accordingly, iStar’s ready access to capital is vital if it is to
possess the liquidity necessary to issue mortgage loans.
140. Defendants knowingly engaged or consciously ignored the fraud alleged herein to
provide it with ready access to much needed capital at a time when capital raising in the marketplace
was extremely unfavorable. Defendants used the proceeds raised in the Secondary Offering to pay
down a $1.9 billion short-term credit facility scheduled to come due in June 2008.
141. Defendants also knowingly engaged or consciously ignored the fraud alleged herein
because they were troubled about rating downgrades since iStar’s rating agencies were concerned
about the levels of the Company’s debt and capital.
142. The scienter of the Individual Defendants is underscored by the Sarbanes-Oxley
mandated certifications of Defendants Sugarman and Rice, which acknowledged their responsibility
to investors for establishing and maintaining controls to ensure that material information about iStar
was made known to them and that the Company’s disclosure related controls were operating
effectively.
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143. The Individual Defendants, because of their positions with iStar, controlled the
contents of the Company’s public statements during the Class Period. Each Individual Defendant
was provided with or had access to copies of the presentations alleged herein to be false and/or
misleading prior to or shortly after their issuance and had the ability and opportunity to prevent their
issuance or cause them to be corrected. Because of their positions and access to material non-public
information, the Individual Defendants knew or recklessly disregarded that the adverse facts
specified herein had not been disclosed to and were being concealed from the public and that the
positive representations that were being made were false and misleading. As a result, each of the
Individual Defendants is responsible for the accuracy of iStar’s corporate statements and are
therefore responsible and liable for the representations contained therein.
Loss Causation/Economic Loss
144. During the Class Period, as detailed herein, Defendants engaged in a course of
conduct and a scheme to deceive the market that artificially inflated iStar’s stock price and operated
as a fraud or deceit on Class Period purchasers of iStar common stock by misrepresenting the
Company’s then current state of affairs. Defendants achieved this façade by making
misrepresentations about the Company’s business and loan portfolio. As detailed above, when
Defendants’ prior misrepresentations and fraudulent conduct were disclosed and became apparent to
the market, the price of iStar stock declined as the prior artificial inflation came out of the price of
iStar stock. As a result of their purchases of iStar common stock during the Class Period, Plaintiffs
and other members of the Class suffered economic loss, i.e., damages, under the federal securities
laws.
145. By improperly concealing their conduct, Defendants presented a misleading picture of
iStar’s business and prospects. Thus, instead of truthfully disclosing the risks and uncertainties
facing iStar, Defendants caused iStar to conceal the adverse developments associated with its
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lending activities. These actions caused iStar common stock to trade at artificially inflated prices
throughout the Class Period and until the truth was revealed to the market.
146. Defendants’ false and misleading statements had the intended effect and caused
iStar’s stock to trade at artificially inflated levels throughout the Class Period, reaching as high as
$32.75 per share.
147. On February 28, 2008, when iStar announced that its fourth quarter financial results
were impacted by $134.9 million of charge associated with the “impairment of two credits” and a
$113 million charge associated with an increase in its loan loss reserves, iStar’s common stock
dropped by approximately 12% to $20.19 per share. Thereafter, in response to such announcements,
the price of iStar stock declined another 30 % over the ensuing five trading days to $13.98 per share
on March 6, 2008.
148. The decline in iStar’s stock price at the end of the Class Period was a direct result of
the nature and extent of Defendants’ fraud finally being revealed to investors and the market. The
timing and magnitude of the decline in the price of iStar stock negates any inference that the loss
suffered by Plaintiffs and other Class members was caused by changed market conditions,
macroeconomic or industry factors or Company-specific facts unrelated to the Defendants’
fraudulent conduct.
149. The economic loss, i.e., damages, suffered by Plaintiffs and other members of the
Class was a direct result of Defendants’ fraudulent scheme to artificially inflate iStar’s stock price
and the subsequent significant decline in the value of iStar’s stock when Defendants’ prior
misrepresentations and other fraudulent conduct was revealed.
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Applicability of Presumption of Reliance:Fraud on the Market Doctrine
150. At all relevant times, the market for iStar common stock was an efficient market for
the following reasons, among others:
(a) iStar common stock met the requirements for listing, and was listed and
actively traded on the NYSE, a highly efficient and liquid global market;
(b) as a public company, iStar filed periodic public reports with the SEC;
(c) iStar regularly communicated with public investors via established market
communication mechanisms, including through regular disseminations of press releases on the
national circuits of major newswire services and through other wide-ranging public disclosures, such
as communications with the financial press and other similar reporting services; and
(d) iStar was followed by several securities analysts employed by major
brokerage firms who wrote reports which were distributed to the sales force and certain customers of
their respective brokerage firms. Each of these reports was publicly available and entered the public
marketplace.
151. As a result of the foregoing, the market promptly digested current information
regarding iStar from publicly available sources and reflected such information in the price of iStar
stock. Under these circumstances, all purchasers of iStar common stock during the Class Period
suffered similar injury through their purchase of iStar common stock at artificially inflated prices
and a presumption of reliance applies.
No Safe Harbor
152. The statutory safe harbor provided for forward-looking statements under certain
circumstances does not apply to any of the allegedly false statements pleaded in this Complaint.
Many of the specific statements pleaded herein were not identified as “forward-looking statements”
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when made. To the extent there were any forward-looking statements, there were no meaningful
cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those in the purportedly forward-looking statements. Alternatively, to the extent that the
statutory safe harbor does apply to any forward-looking statements pleaded herein, Defendants are
liable for those false forward-looking statements because, at the time each of those forward-looking
statements was made, the particular speaker knew that the particular forward-looking statement was
false, and/or the forward-looking statement was authorized and/or approved by an executive officer
of iStar who knew that those statements were false when made.
153. By virtue of the foregoing, Defendants have violated Section 10(b) of the Exchange
Act, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’
wrongful conduct, Plaintiffs and the other members of the Class suffered damages in connection
with their respective purchases and sales of the Company’s securities during the Class Period.
COUNT IV
Violation of Section 10(b) of the ExchangeAct and Rule 10b-5 Promulgated Thereunder
Against Defendants iStar, Sugarman, Rice and O’Conner
154. Plaintiffs incorporate herein ¶¶1-153 by reference.
155. In this Count, the term “Defendants” refers only to Defendants iStar, Sugarman, Rice
and O’Conner.
156. During the Class Period, Defendants disseminated or approved the false statements
specified above, which they knew or recklessly disregarded were misleading in that they contained
misrepresentations and failed to disclose material facts necessary in order to make the statements
made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading.
157. Defendants violated Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 1 0b-5 in that they:
(a) employed devices, schemes, and artifices to defraud;
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(b) made untrue statements of material facts or omitted to state material facts
necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were
made, not misleading; or
(c) engaged in acts, practices, and a course of business that operated as a fraud or
deceit upon Plaintiffs and others similarly situated in connection with their purchases of iStar
common stock during the Class Period.
158. Plaintiffs and the Class have suffered damages in that, in reliance on the integrity of
the market, they paid artificially inflated prices for iStar common stock. Plaintiffs and the Class
would not have purchased iStar common stock at the prices they paid, or at all, if they had been
aware that the market prices had been artificially and falsely inflated by Defendants’ misleading
statements.
159. As a direct and proximate result of these Defendants’ wrongful conduct, Plaintiffs and
the other members of the Class suffered damages in connection with their purchases of iStar
common stock during the Class Period.
COUNT V
Violation of Section 20(a) of the Exchange ActAgainst Defendants Sugarman, Rice and O’Conner
160. Plaintiffs incorporate herein ¶¶1-159 by reference.
161. In this Count, the term “Defendants” refers only to Defendants Sugarman, Rice and
O’Conner.
162. Defendants Sugarman, Rice and O’Conner acted as controlling persons of iStar
within the meaning of Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act. By virtue of their positions and their
power to control public statements about iStar, Defendants Sugarman, Rice and O’Conner had the
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had the power and ability to control the actions of iStar and its employees. By reason of such
conduct, Individual Defendants are liable pursuant to §20(a) of the Exchange Act.
PA', kYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and the Class, pray for judgment as
follows:
A. declaring this action to be a plaintiff class action properly maintained pursuant to
Rule 23(a) and (b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure;
B. awarding Plaintiffs and other members of the Class damages together with interest
thereon;
C. with respect to Count 11, ordering that the Secondary Offering be rescinded;
D. awarding Plaintiffs and other members of the Class their costs and expenses of this
litigation, including reasonable attorneys' fees, accountants' fees and experts' fees and other costs
and disbursements; and
E. awarding Plaintiffs and other members of the Class such other and further relief as
may be just and proper under the circumstances.
JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
Plaintiffs hereby demand a trial by jury.
DATED: February 2, 2009 COUGHLIN STOIA GELLERRUDMAN & ROBBINS LLP
SAMUEL H. RUDMANFf
S MUEL H. RUDMAN
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58 South Service Road, Suite 200Melville, NY 11747Telephone: 631/367-7100631/367-1173 (fax)
ABRAHAM FRUCHTER & TWERSKY LLPJACK G. FRUCHTEROne Pennsylvania Plaza, Suite 2805New York, NY 10 119Telephone: 212/279-5050212/279-3655 (fax)
Co-Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs
ROBERT M. CHEVERIE & ASSOCIATESGREGORY CAMPORACommerce Center One333 E. River Drive, Suite 101East Hartford, CT 06108Telephone: 860/290-9610
Additional Counsel for Plaintiff
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
1, Samuel H. Rudman, hereby certify that on February 2, 2009, 1 caused a true and
correct copy of the attached:
Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint for Violations of FederalSecurities Laws
to be served by first-class mail to all counsel on the attached service list.
SzWUEL H. RUDMAN
Case 1:08-cv-03612-RJS Document 20 Filed 02/02/2009 Page 64 of 64
iSTAR FINANCIAL (LEAD)Service List - 1/6/2009 (08-0083)
Page 1 of 1
Counsel For Defendant(s)Matthew D. Parrott David H. Kistenbroker
Kaften Muchin Rosenman LLP Theresa L. Davis
575 Madison Avenue Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
New York, NY 10022 525 W. Monroe Street, Suite 1600
212/940-8800 Chicago, IL 60661-3693
212/940-8776(Fax)
312/902-5200312/902-1061(Fax)
Counsel For Plaintiff(s)
Jack G. Fruchter Samuel H. RudmanAbraham, Fruchter & Twersky David A. Rosenfeld
One Pennsylvania Plaza, Suite 2805 Mario Alba, Jr.
New York, NY 10119 Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP
212/279-5050 58 South Service Road, Suite 200
212/279-3655(Fax) Melville, NY 11747631/367-7100631/367-1173(Fax)
Ramzi Abadou Gregory CamporaCoughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP Robert M. Cheverie & Associates655 West Broadway, Suite 1900 Commerce Center OneSan Diego, CA 92101 333 E. River Drive, Suite 101
619/231-1058 East Hartford, CT 06108619/231-7423 (Fax) 860/290-9610
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